Cooperative Relations in Agricultural 
Development 



x\ddress of E. T. Meredith, Secretary of Agriculture 

Before the Land-Grant College Association 

Springfield, Mass., October 20, 1920 




UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

CIRCULAR 153 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 



Washington, D. C. 



Noveinl>cr, 1920 



l*v>no^aph 



Published in response to a 

request of the Land-Grant College 

Association, October 20, 1920 



Library of C0NaR^i§ 



• EIVEO 



JA1J111921 



I DocuMEfsiTs Division 






COOPERATIVE RELATIONS IN AGRICULTURAL 
DEVELOPMENT. 



^HIS, in a real sense, is a family gathering. The insti- 
tutions we represent are dedicated to puhlic serv- 
ice, and we are seeking in many of our activities to 
attain a common object — the strengthening of our na- 
tional foundations by the upbuilding of our great basic 
industry. I take it, therefore, that we may discuss our 
mutual ■pro])lems with tlie candor that should charac- 
terize the interchange of views among members of the 
same household; and I know you will believe me when 
I say that I count it a privilege and an honor to appear 
before this association, which includes in its member- 
ship the men who to-day are shaping the destiny of 
agriculture, men who must play such an important role 
in meeting some of the increasingly dillicult and com- 
plex problems confronting us at this time and those 
which will arise in the years that lie immediately ahead. 

I shall not attempt to indicate to this body what these 
problems are or are likely to be. It would be presump- 
tuous for me to do so. There are men here to-day who 
are far better qualified than I am to deal with such 
questions in a comprehensive way, and we must look 
to them for advice and guidance. I do wish, however, 
to discuss with you some matters of mutual concern to 
the land-grant colleges and experiment stations and to 
the Department of Agriculture. 

The Department of Agriculture was brought into be- 
ing 58 3^ears ago. Two years later the land-grant col- 
leges were established. For more than 20 years these 
great agencies worked together for the betterment of 

1 

KJGSG— 20 



2 Address of E. T. Meredith. 

agriculture Ijefore there came into existence the agri- 
cultural experiment stations; and these three sets of in- 
stitutions have made contrihutions of untold value to the 
science and practice of agriculture. They have coop- 
erated, and are cooperating, with each other in innu- 
merable ways, but there still exist many opportunities 
for the further development of our cooperative rela- 
tions. In a few cases, and I am happy to say that they 
are very few, the colleges and the department have been 
pulling at cross-purposes — not because the ends they 
wish to attain are different, but because they do not 
thoroughly understand one another and are using dif- 
ferent methods — with resulting lost motion that could 
probably be avoided by close)' contact and under- 
standing. 

CLOSER COOPERATION NECESSARY. 

I am anxious to do everything in my power, while I 
am in the Department of Agriculture, to aid in promot- 
ing the more effective coordination of efforts among our 
agricultural agencies within their respective fields. 
Much has been done along this line within the past few 
years, but much remains to be done. Cooperation is a 
word that is very much in vogue these days, but, gen- 
erally speaking, I think its true meaning is little under- 
stood. Certainly there can be no thoroughgoing coop- 
eration unless there is a real desire to cooperate, and, it 
seems to me, that both the colleges and the department 
should overlook no opportunity to develop such a 
spirit — a desire to cooperate — among their workers. 
No matter how many agreements we enter into, their 
purposes can not be fully realized unless this spirit is 
fully developed, unless there exists between the parties 
to them a genuine feeling of mutual confidence and good 
will and an earnest desire and willingness to be helpful 
to each other. Your association, through its appro- 
priate committee, recently suggested the desirability of 
appointing an officer in the department whose specific 
duty it w^ould be to promote better relations and closer 



Cooperative Rclalions in Agriciillural Development. 3 

coordination of work between the colleges and stations 
and the department. I have accepted this reconnnenda- 
tion in the spirit in which it was made, and I am con- 
vinced that its adoption wonld be mutually beneiicial to 
all these agencies. I have, therefore, reconmiended in 
our estimates for the next fiscal year, which have just 
been submitted to the Congress, that authority be given 
to appoint a director of scientific work, at a salary of 
$7,500 per annum, who shall be a permanent officer and 
who will devote his attention not only to the develop- 
ment and coordination of the research activities of the 
various branches of the department but who will also 
work out and put into execution plans for the further 
correlation of these activities with those of the appro- 
priate State agricultural agencies. I may add that I 
have also asked Congress for authority to appoint a 
director of regulatory work who will function in essen- 
tially the same way with reference to the regulatory 
work of the department. 

MUST GIVE MORE THOUGHT TO RESEARCH. 

I do not need to remind you gentlemen of the basic 
importance of research — and I use the word in its most 
comprehensive sense. It is the foundation of agricul- 
tural progress. Without it many of our agricultural 
activities could not exist under present conditions and 
others would be seriously crippled. All our most im- 
portant problems along control lines are based on years 
of patient research. Swine production in a large way is 
dependent upon hog-cholera control; the cattle industry 
upon tuberculosis eradication, and in the South upon 
cattle-tick eradication; the fruit industry upon scien- 
tific methods for the protection of both trees and fruit; 
many field and truck crops upon methods of disease 
control, the introduction and development of new varie- 
ties, and the working out of improved cultural methods 
and practices. 

I might go through the entire range of agriculture, 
giving illustrations of the application of the results of 
scientific study to everyday problems, but it is unneces- 



4 Address of E. T. Meredith. 

sary for me to do so here. Indeed, so much has been 
accompKshed through the results of research that many 
people are dangerously near falling into the error of 
thinking that not much more work of this character is 
needed and that the requirements of the day relate 
merely to the application of knowledge already in hand. 
Research is more essential now than ever before, and 
the need does not relate wholly to the matter of taking 
care of the future. We are confronted to-day with 
serious problems of the most pressing nature about 
which we know very little. A striking instance is con- 
tagious abortion of cattle, a disease which handicaps 
the cattle industry of the country to an enormous de- 
gree. We have no successful method of combating it. 
Another is the breeding of domestic animals, which is 
still largely a matter of chance, and entirely too little 
fundamental research work upon it is in progress. No 
one will deny, I am sure, that it would be the part of 
wisdom to concentrate the best brains of the country 
on this important problem and to provide adequate 
facilities for carrying on the work in the most com- 
prehensive manner. Still another problem about which 
we know relatively little is that of the control of animal 
parasites. In large areas of the United States they con- 
stitute perhaps the greatest limiting factors in animal 
production. In everj^ section thej^ are problems of im- 
portance. I am told that there are probably 40 differ- 
ent parasites, about many of which we have little exact 
knowledge, that affect hogs alone. To acquire the 
needed information and to work out proper methods 
of preventing or controlling these pests a great deal of 
research of the highest order is necessary. 

MUST FACE SITUATION FRANKLY. 

There are numerous other problems of equal im- 
portance and urgency relating to the soil, to plant dis- 
eases, to plant breeding, and to all other phases of agri- 
cultural production. 

We must be frank enough with ourselves to recognize 
the fact that fundamental research has not gone forward 



Cooperative Relations in A()rirulliiral Development. 5 

as rapidly as our best interests demaiul, and it seems 
to me that the time has come for us— the colleges and 
stations and the department— to see that it is given and 
retains the proper place in our respective organizations. 
I am sure that nowhere has the importance of research 
been consciously minimized, but, in the exigencies of 
war and its aftermath, a situation has come about which, 
I think you will agree, amounts to neglect of this basis 
of agricultural progress. The rapid growth of exten- 
sion work, the value of which I fully appreciate, has 
contributed to this result. We have been so busy with 
extension, so amazed also at the rapidity of its growth 
and application, that we have not found time to give 
to research, during the past few years, the careful plan- 
ning and deep thought that it should receive. Unless 
we are to permit an insidious undermining of the whole 
structure that we have reared through six decades of 
tireless work, we must have a larger number of thor- 
oughly trained and experienced investigators to give 
their time exclusively to research. Upon the agricul- 
tural colleges rests the responsibility of training the 
agricultural leaders and investigators of the future; 
they must provide the men and women needed by the 
experiment stations and the Department of Agriculture 
for the prosecution of their activities. There is a com- 
munity of interest, therefore, among these three agencies 
in dealing with this great problem and in seeing to it 
that there is constantly available an increasing number 
of well-trained and thoroughly grounded men and 
women to carry on the work intrusted to them. 

NEW SET OF P1U)HI,KMS TO SOLVE. 

There are many lines of research which are relatively 
undeveloped and to which, it seems to me, the depart- 
ment and the colleges in cooperation should give more 
attention in the future. 1 have in mind especially the 
study of the economic problems involved in marketing 
and distribution, in farm management, in land utiliza- 
tion and settlement, and in cooperative elVorl among 
farmers for various inirposes. Until a Itw yc>ars ago 



6 Address of E. T. Meredith. 

relatively little systematic work had been done to aid in 
the solution of the complex problems arising in connec- 
tion with the distribution of farm products. Now the 
Bureau of Markets of the Department of Agriculture is 
actively at work in this field, and many of the land-grant 
colleges, to which the bureau must necessarily look in 
recruiting its personnel, have established courses in 
marketing, but I imagine some of these courses could be 
strengthened and that others could be developed. The 
activities of the Office of Farm Management and Farm 
Economics have, within the past two years, been redi- 
rected and expanded so that it is now in position to deal 
more effectively than ever before with broad economic 
problems, including farm management, land settlement 
and utilization, and the like; and here again the depart- 
ment must depend upon the colleges to provide the 
necessary number of trained men. 

Another line of work that could well be enlarged is 
that relating to the development of processes for con- 
verting perishable farm products into commodities suf- 
ficiently staple to he carried from the season of plenty 
to the period when they are actually needed. The fact 
that they can not now be so carried results in the 
marketing at one time of larger ({uantities than can be 
disposed of profitably and demoralization of the market 
follows, with consequent less to the farmers. Indus- 
tries founded upon the utilization of farm products in 
seasons of excess are of tremendous permanent value. 
As an illustration, 1 may cite the investigations con- 
ducted by the Bureau of Chemistr}' looking toward the 
development of a citrus by-products industry for the 
utilization of cull and surplus oranges and lemons. The 
efifort of the bureau to aid in the establishment of a 
dehydration industry is another instance. Still another 
is the task of develojDing technological processes for 
preserving perishable food products. This is illustrated 
in the studies of the Bureau of Markets and the Bureau 
of Plant Industry in the preservation of fruits and vege- 
tables and of the Biu'eau of Chemistrv in methods of 



Cooperative Relalions in Agriciillnral Development. 7 

packing, shipping, and storing poultry and eggs. Then 
there is the prohk«ni of providing outlets lor waste prod- 
ucts, of which the utilization of corncohs for the makmg 
of adhcsives, cellulose, furfural, and other valuahle 
products is a striking exaniph'- 

BETTER ENGINEERING COURSES NEEDED. 

Much remains to he done, also, in developing the field 
of rural engineering. This is one of the newer branches 
in the department and in the colleges, and a number oi 
the latter, I believe, have not yet instituted courses tor 
the training of men along these lines. Some of the large 
problems with which the farmers have to deal are engi- 
neering in character. No uniformity now exists in the 
rating of farm machines, such as silage cutters and blow- 
ers, pumps, and other farm eciuipment. Comprehen- 
sive tests have not been made of farm power, either 
mechanical or animal. The Bureau of Public Roads 
l)roposes to inaugurate a comprehensive study ot me- 
chanical power on the farm, in cooperation with the 
acnicultural engineers of the State colleges, and the 
problems relating to farm buildings, heating, lighting, 
ventilation, and the like should be studied in the same 

manner. 

The colleges can perhaps do more than any other 
agency to bring about a better recognition of forestry 
as an essential part of agricultural science. The deple- 
tion of our timber supplies has reached such a stage as 
to make it incumbent upon both the colleges and the de- 
partment to begin a definite and earnest effort to solve 
the problems of timber production on the farms. A 
beginning already has been made along this line in a 
few States and I hope that others will turn their atten- 
tion to it in the near future. 1 may add that the de- 
partment is planning to ask Congress for an increased 
appropriation to further a national program of forestry 
and, if it is granted, it will be in position to prosecute 
the farm forestry project vigorously in cooperation with 
the colleges. 



8 Address of E. T. Meredith. 

MUST TRAIN MEN IN METEOROLOGY. 

Practically nothing is being done, outside of the 
Weather Bureau of the department, toward the develop- 
ment of meteorology as a science. Less than half a 
dozen institutions in the United States have definite 
courses in meteorology, and these are inadequate to 
meet the requirements. As a matter of fact, few stu- 
dents have expressed a desire to pursue courses of this 
character because opportunities for employment in 
meteorological work have been confined almost en- 
tirely to the Weather Bureau. Becently there has been 
an increased interest in meteorology resulting from the 
unprecedented development of aviation and aeronau- 
tics, and more attention is being given than ever before 
to the utilization of meteorological data in connection 
with commercial and agricultural activities. The time 
is fast approaching when there will be many opportuni- 
ties for the employment of highly trained meteorologists 
in many lines of industry, and the development by some 
of the land-grant colleges of adequate courses in this 
branch of science is worthy of consideration. 

There are still large problems unsolved in connection 
with the extension work. The county-agent system is 
not complete. At least 600 counties need county agri- 
cultural agents; about 1,800 counties have no home dem- 
onstration agents, and only a small fraction of the farm 
boys and girls are being reached bj?^ the club movement. 
Tlie great need at the present time is for well-trained 
men who can carry on this highly useful and immensely 
important work, and the land-grant colleges, of course, 
are the proper agencies to train them. The rapid 
growth of the farm bureau movement and the increas- 
ing interest among farmers in the economic problems of 
agriculture, especially in marketing and transportation, 
has led to a situation in which the educational value of 
extension work is likely to be endangered by monopoliz- 
ing the time and energy of the county agent in purely 
commercial transactions. We must study this problem 
with the view of working out policies under which the 
needs of the farmers in cooperative marketing and other 



Cooperative Relations in Agricalliiral Dcuclopmcnl. 9 

business affairs may be met witbout impairing Ibc edu- 
cational feature of tbe extension work. 

FULLER INFORMATION FOR FARMERS. 

Tbis leads me to suggest tbat more attention sbould 
be given, botb by tbe department and tbe colleges, to tbe 
furnisbing of information to farmers, tbrougb tbe ex- 
tension service and in otber ways, regarding tbe sui)i)ly 
of agricultural commodities not only in tbe bands of 
agencies in tbis country but also tbose available in otber 
sections of the world. Tbis information sbould be pre- 
sented in sucb a way as to sbow clearly to tbe average 
farmer tbe probable cft'ect tbat existing supplies will 
bave on future prices; and, in connection witb tbe de- 
velopment of processes for utilization of surplus prod- 
ucts, it would be a great aid to tbem in regulating Ibeir 
planting and marketing operations so as to reduce many 
of tbe losses tbc}^ are now compelled to suffer. It is not 
my tbougbt tbat tbe colleges and tbe department sbould 
undertake to advise farmers specifically wbat tbey 
sbouki or sbould not produce during any season, but 
ratber tbat tbey sbould place tbe facts before tbe farm- 
ers in sucb a way tbat any intelligent farmer migbt de- 
cide for bimself wbat be sbould do. 

Wben all is said and done, neitber Ibe colleges nor 
tbe department can render tbe most eff'ective service 
unless tbey bave an adequate, well-trained personnel, 
and tbe problem of securing and maintaining sucb a 
personnel is of mutual concern. If we are to discbarge 
our responsibilities to tbe public, we must see to it tbat 
tbe salary standards and oppoitunities, botb of tbe col- 
leges and tbe department, are sucb as to attract and bold 
tbe ablest and most far-seeing scientific men in America. 
Tbe turnover in tbe dei)artmenl, esi)ecially among tbe 
research workers, bas reached an alarming stage and 
we are threatened with a serious disinti'gralion of lb(> 
service. I assume that the colleges are confronted with 
essentially the same situation. I'nless something is 
done to remedy existing conditions we can not li()i)e to 
maintain tbe integrity of our research and other aelivi- 



10 Address of E. T. Meredith. 

ties. Valuable men are leaving us constantly for sala- 
ries two, three, four, and even five times as much as we 
are able to pay them. It is not to be hoped, of course, 
that we can ever meet that kind of competition, and, in 
fact, our scientific men do not expect it. As a general 
rule they do not feel that we should pay them as large 
salaries as they could secure in private employment, but 
they do feel — and I am in full sympathy with their 
view — that they should receive compensation sufficient 
to enable them to keep themselves and their families in 
reasonable comfort. Unless we can pay them more ade- 
quate compensation our institutions will continue to be 
drained of many of their most efQcient workers, and in 
time a serious, almost a fatal, blow will have been 
struck at the root of agricultural progress, because much 
of the work done by the Department of Agriculture, by 
the agricultural colleges, b}^ the agricultural-extension 
agencies of every kind, rests, in the final analysis, on 
the results obtained by the research workers. 

SCIENTISTS MUST HAVE BETTER SALARIES. 

It is of the utmost importance that the colleges and 
the department should be in position to retain their 
scientific workers over long periods. From the stand- 
point of public service, a man once embarked in an im- 
portant field of investigation, if he is capable and effi- 
cient, should remain there for the rest of his active 
career. If he leaves to accept other employment, he 
carries with him much of the information he has se- 
cured in the progress of his work which enriches him 
in experience but which can not possibly be put on 
record. This means, of course, that a new man con- 
tinuing the problem must, in many instances, go over a 
considerable part of the field already covered before 
he reaches the point where his predecessor left off. In 
dealing with this vital problem of personnel there are 
many ways in which the colleges and the department 
can cooperate to mutual advantage, and it behooves us 
to do everything in our power to see that the present 
situation is remedied, and remedied promptly. 



Cooperative Relations in Ayrienltnral Development. 11 

Our inability to pay adequate conipcnsatioii to our 
scientific workers is due to the lack of sufficient funds, 
or to limitations placed on the discretion of executive 
officers by Congress or the legislatures of the various 
States, and these, in turn, arc due in large measure to 
the lack of understanding on the part of the public of 
the importance of research work. The only way, or at 
least one way, by which this situation can be corrected 
is for the colleges and the department to combine in an 
effort to outline the great and pressing ])roblems in the 
field of agriculture and to emphasize the importance 
of their solution so that the cooperation of all the people 
of the country may be secured. 

CULTIVATE PUBLIC OPINION. 

It seems to me that, on the whole, we have given too 
little attention to public opinion as it relates to agri- 
cultural problems. Any misconception on the part of a 
large group of individuals as to the true function of 
public institutions relating to agriculture is almost cer- 
tain to retard progress. Generally speaking, the con- 
sumer thinks that agricultural institutions, including the 
colleges and the department, are maintained for the 
benefit of the farmer and for his benefit alone. This, 
of course, is not true. These institutions are serving, 
with a high measure of efficiency, the whole people, 
urban as well as rural. During the past 50 years the 
relative decrease in agricultural population and the in- 
crease in urban population has been very marked. Yet, 
on the whole, the smaller percentage of persons engaged 
in agriculture has produced adequate supplies of farm 
products. Increased efficiency directly attributable to 
the work of agricultural institutions has certainly 
played an important pari in bringing about this result. 
Everything done by them that has helped to increase 
production and to eliminate wastes not only has added 
to the farmer's income but has also benefited the city 
consumer. This fact, however, is not generally under- 
stood. One of the tasks ahead of us is to see Ihal such 
an understanding is conveyed to the public; thai if is 



12 Address of E. T. Meredith. 

demonstrated to the people in the cities, as well as those 
in the rural districts, that the funds devoted to agricul- 
ture are not used in the interest of the farmer alone but 
in the interest of the consumer as well. 

The means for accomplishing this end ought to be 
carefully considered and then put into operation as 
promptly as possible. We should overlook no oppor- 
tunity to present agricultural problems in the most at- 
tractive and effective way to city organizations, such as 
boards of trade, chambers of commerce, community as- 
sociations, the press, and others. Emphasis should be 
placed on the dependence of the city man on the agri- 
cultural communit3% Ijoth as a source of food supply and 
as a market for manufactured products, on the fact that 
farming, if it is to continue to meet the Nation's require- 
ments, must provide an adequate return to those en- 
gaged in it, and on the necessity of making country life 
more attractive. We should emphasize, too, the com- 
mon interest of the farmer and the city man in such 
problems as those of providing a suf!icicnt farm labor 
supply, adequate transportation facilities, and ample 
iinance for agricultural needs. 

PROFIT BY LESSONS OF WAR. 

In closing, I wish to emphasize again my earnest de- 
sire to do everything in my power to promote closer 
and more effective cooperation between the department 
and the colleges. The war taught us the value of co- 
operation and we should not fail to take, full advantage 
of the lesson we have learned at such great cost. We 
all know the part that science played in the winning of 
the war, and that it was not until the scientific men of the 
allied countries united in solving the complex technical 
problems of warfare that victory was assured. Lack of 
cooperation between the agricultural agencies of the 
Nation would, I believe, be prevented or obviated by 
better knowledge on the part of each organization of the 
aims and viewpoints of the others. The appointment of 
a director of scientific work in the department will, I 
am sure, do much to bring about closer relations, and it 



(loopcrative Relalions in AgiirnlUual Dcpclopincnl. 13 

occurs to iiic also that a system for the exchange of 
scientific workers is worth}' of consideration. By tliis 
I mean that it iniglit he feasihle to develop a plan 
whereby men working along si)ecial lines in the various 
branches of the department might be exchanged, in 
limited number lor limited periods, with scientists 
working along similar lines, either as research men or 
as teachers in the colleges. In this way the depart- 
ment's methods of work and of handling problems 
would be carried to the colleges and their methods of 
work and their way of considering and dealing with 
problems would be brought to the department, with 
benefit to both. Such a plan, it seems to me, would 
result in closer contacts and better understanding, and 
would lead to new ideas in both organizations relative 
to the important lines of research and other work to be 
undertaken. 

For the department I wish to say that it is our hope 
and our desire that there may be strengthened wherever 
possible the close relationships now existing between 
us, hoping that we may be of increased service to you, 
and knowing that we will receive great help and inspira- 
tion from you in carrying forward together work for the 
development of agriculture, the basic industry of the 
country. 

o 



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